Blog of Josh Hall

My brother in law decided to make me sad about my cubicle farm job and show me what LEGO Headquarters looks like.  It’s beautiful.  I can just imagine how energetic everyone feels and how much they love their work place.

http://www.dezeen.com/2012/01/31/lego-pmd-by-rosan-bosch-and-rune-fjord/

Never stop wanting to learn.

As soon as you stop wanting to learn, you stop wanting to do new things.  As soon as you stop wanting to do new things, you are no longer experiencing life.  As soon as you stop experiencing life, you’re dead.

Hot off the tails of the Cathedral of Learning winning the S.W. Randall competition, I became aware of LEGO’s new beta site, Rebrick.LEGO.com, and their competition!  I didn’t have much time to prepare or make a bricklink order, especially with us going out of town 4 days before submissions were due!  The rules are pretty simple:

1. No photoshop
2. Original entries created for the contest
3. Must fit on a 32 x 32 stud plate
4. Must contain an octopus, either built or LEGO figure

Seeing as I don’t have any LEGO octopuses, I had to create my own from scratch.  I thought for a couple of days on what I’d do.  I remember seeing a video on youtube a while back that demonstrated how smart octopi are.  They like puzzles, they can open jars, and sneak through tiny holes.  I wanted to capture an octopus escaping from an aquarium!  The first thing that came to mind were these really long bionicle tentacles, but I only have 4 of them and at about 10 inches long, they wouldn’t be the correct scale to fit on a base plate anyway.  I did remember some of the atlantis sets having some black dinosaur bones that could be used as tentacles though, and as luck would have it, I had 8 in stock!  PERFECT!

At first, I made a tiny black aquarium, but the black on black was too dark.  I asked Kallie to help me with some feedback.  She suggested a color change and making the tank bigger.  I took her advice, she through in some artistic touch with the clear cheese slopes on a blue background to add a water effect, and then she also took some pictures since I hate that part.  I never grew up with a camera, and I just don’t feel at home behind the lens.  I don’t see things in artistic ways through photography.  Keren got all that talent I guess.

Anyway, here’s my submission.  Click the link and give it a vote by clicking “like” next to it.   Since it’s still a beta website, I think I have a shot at least!

If you give an adult LEGO enthusiast a brick, he’s going to want a container to put it in.

When you give him the container, he’ll probably ask you to help find all the bricks in his inventory of the same shape.

When he’s finished finding all the pieces of the same shape, he’ll ask you to help sort out all the like colors of that same shape.

Then he will want to build something out of his newly sorted pieces, but he’ll need to get out his other pieces out too.

When he pulls out his other pieces and gets to work, he’ll notice he needs to make a BrickLink order for more of those pieces to finish his new creation.

When he makes that BrickLink order, he might throw in a few more pieces, just because they’re cheap and he doesn’t have them!

When he finishes his new creation, you’ll have to get the camera, white backdrop, and lighting for him to take a picture of it.

He’ll want you to upload the pictures to MOCPages or Flickr so that all his friends can see the pictures of his new creation.

When you upload the pictures, he’ll get so excited about LEGO creations that he’ll want to look at everyone’s latest activity.

When he looks at everyone’s latest activity, he’ll want to post his own comments and favorite their creations.

Then he’ll want to go see the creations in person at the upcoming brick convention, which means he’ll need to bring something to display or to enter a competition.

He’ll decide what he’s going to build and then start to think about what pieces he’ll need to make it.  Chances are, he’ll need another piece he doesn’t have or more pieces of the ones he does have.

And chances are if he asks for another brick, he’s going to want another storage container to keep it in.

Modified by Josh Hall from Laura Numeroff‘s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”

If you’re not inspiring change, solutions, or actions, you’re still just complaining.

Saying things should be a certain way is just a different form of complaining.  Maybe even a lazier form.  If you think your vision or suggestion is the best, stand behind it and prove why it’s the best.  If you can’t get your message across, that’s on you, or it’s just a reflection about your suggestion not being a very good one.

This is kind of a memory, but I just remember how much of a kick I got out of my Pitt username when I was a student there.  Most students had their 3 initials, then “st” to signify they were a student, and then a random one or two digit number behind it.  I think the ST only was used once there were too many active usernames with the same initials.  Either was, I had always used the handle sixf00t4.   When I got to Pitt, I was so pleased to find out that my username was jdh64.  It was perfect.

Once I got my job at the Pitt helpdesk, I had a lot of people ask me if I had pulled strings to get that username.  It was just fate.